EDIT: Thanks for helping out, HammerHead! You 'da man!

Yeah, don't worry woodamand, you're not alone on this one. Go back to page 3 of this thread and look for a post by simulacreant asking the same question. My answer is in the next post, along with a link to a picture that paints 1000 words and makes it easy to figure out. HTH

All hail losguy for starting this thread.
You are the PCI Latency SuperHero of our time!

I just installed and ran a little utility
called LtcyCfg.exe which enabled me to
tweak my PCI latency settings.

I'm using a fairly old ( and modest) setup :

ECS K75A mobo
Athlon 1800+
256MB
20 Gb Hdd
Audiotrak Maya PCI Audio
Yamaha DS-XG PCI Audio
TNT Riva 64 Video


The Maya is my "Pro" audio card,
used for Music Programs ( Sonar, FL Studio Reason Sound Forge )
The Yamaha is used for MP3 playback and occassionally for it's onboard midi synth.

I have been experiencing pops clicks and other wierd audio glitches whenever I move the
cursor while payback is happening.
This has actually been more of a problem in Fl Studio than the other programs,
but it also appears in Sonar if I'm using too many Softsynths or Rewiring.

The PCI latency for the TNT Riva was set at 280!
The Maya was set to 64.

I changed to the settings below and VOILA!

NO MORE AUDIO GLITCHES!


===================================================

[002] Isa Bridge
Bus = 000
Device = 02
Function = 0
Latency = 000
VenID = 1039
DevID = 0008


[004] Maya EWDM Controller
Bus = 000
Device = 11
Function = 0
Latency = 240
VenID = 3388
DevID = 1014


[005]Maya EWDM Wave-1
Bus = 000
Device = 11
Function = 1
Latency = 240
VenID = 3388
DevID = 1015


[006]Yamaha DS-XG PCI Audio
Bus = 000
Device = 13
Function = 0
Latency = 064
VenID = 1073
DevID = 0010


[007]Ethernet Controller
Bus = 000
Device = 15
Function = 0
Latency = 088
VenID = 10EC
DevID = 8139


[008]TNT Riva 64 Video
Bus = 001
Device = 00
Function = 0
Latency = 128
VenID = 10DE
DevID = 002D


==============================================

This is a great article. Thanks.

Unfortunatley for me, I have not been able to make this work.

If I got a SCSI RAID card for my PCI, do you think that the PCI timing would be a similar issue? It seems like it would.

I don't mind paying if I can get this machine (dual Xeon 3.2) to handle lots of tracks.

Right now I get dropouts with just 15 tracks.

I have the Tyan Tiger dual 3.2 Xeon MOBO with 2 gigs memory. The sound cars are Dakota and Montana, with latest drivers. It has a UAD card in it, but the jury is out on the UAD. My midi is a midi express MOTU on USB, but I usually leave it off.

The built in SATA controller shares with the PCI buss like on your machine.

I bought the dual Xeon because the Cakewalk tech guys said it was the fastest way to go.

I record 44.1 at 24 bit depth. I set the latency to 192.

At first, I had a 200 meg Western Digital EIDE for drive C, one DVD/CD drive, and two Western Digital 200 meg SATA drives in Raid 0 using the built in Promise controller. I put the audio to the RAID.

Dropouts were terrible, and Sonar would give an error message that the Hard drive could not be written to, and was possibly full. This would happen while trying to record 9 tracks while monitoring 3 tracks. Of course the 400 gig RAID drive was less than 1 percent used. This would happen within a couple of measures.

I tried using Powerstrip, and reducing the PCI latency on the video card (ATI 9000 pro), but saw no change.

In desperation, I tried using drive C for audio, and the results improved, with only occasional ( every other take).

As a result, I installed one more EIDE drive to record audio to, and I un-raided the SATA drives. I figure I will use the SATA drives for storage or backup.

I am currently getting dropouts while adding 9 tracks while monitoring 3 tracks about every third take on a four minute song. Adding 9 tracks while monitoring 12 tracks is likeley to get a dropout on any four minut long take. Curriously, the reliability decreases dramatically if you have even one plug in going.

Of course I look like a fool to the musicians I am trying to record.

My processor varies from 0 to 5 percent use, and the hard drive meter fluxuates from 0 to 15 percent use.

I have used Cakewalk since DOS 3, and I don't want to change, but sooner or later desperation sets in. Macs are looking better than I ever thought.

I would gladly pay for a SCSI raid if I could get the performance it would imply.

I figure I should get lots more tracks with lots more reliablility.

I am replying to myself.

Sanity seems to be slowly slipping away.

I just turned off hardware acceleration on the video, and things seem to have improved quite a bit. I admit I forgot to do this.

As far as the MOTU USB MIDI, I have been leaving it off, but turning it on does not affect things.

Just a quick friendly "bump" to keep the thread from falling into the bit bucket. It's been handy to keep around, if nothing else, for reference's sake.

ORIGINAL: harmonium
Thanks for the great post losguy....
I've been having similar problems with a recently purchased Asus P4R800-V Deluxe but have not been able to solve them. What do you think of that motherboard?

Hey harmonium (Derek), welcome to the SONAR Forum! That board has an ATI chipset, which is not really one of the mainstream ones, even for ATI. Pieces of it look like SiS, but it may be a sort of cross between the two. The board, with the integrated RADEON VGA, is mainly aimed at Home Theater PC applications.

The place I bought it from has agreed to swap it out for free...I'm thinking of swapping it for an Intel D865PERL.
Do you have any thoughts?

I have heard nothing but great news about this MOBO. The chipset is excellent and very stable. This sounds like a great deal, and I would jump on it if I had the chance.

Blessings, Carlos.

ORIGINAL: vicsant
Hi,
This is a great thread with over 7 pages and 15,000 hits!!!
Is there a way you can summarize all the data into one document and post it...something like the Steve's Sonar FAQ?
God bless,
Vic

Thanks for the kind words and sentiments, Vic. That would be like writing an article. Hey... that's an idea! (Too late to copyright the material, though... it's Cakewalk's property now!). Actually, the real "meat" is all on the first page. All my posts there (and some clarifications by Scott Reams and Marquis42) on that page summarize the needed technical information. Everything after that are like specific case studies for PCI latency timer optimization and PCI-slot IRQ configuration. OK, there was one good piece (fourth-from-last post on page 6) where I decoded Intel PCI tables for the world. That was fun. Here's a thought: a thread with direct links to those three posts. It would save a lot of retyping, and it would continue to drive up the hit count on the original thread.
;)
(I'm hoping to pass up the big gripe threads on good principle alone.)

I have heard nothing but great news about this MOBO. The chipset is excellent and very stable. This sounds like a great deal, and I would jump on it if I had the chance.

Blessings, Carlos.

Carlos,

Thanks so much for the info. I'll definitely jump on this opportunity to swap out the board!

Cheers,
Derek

and very well worth it, losguy! I knew about the principles of PCI latency timing, but I did not know that the user could do anything about it. It is because I read that Matrox G series vid cards choose low prioritys values that I chose them for my DAW. I believe I wil follow your instructions and check my system out - I have the same SATA controller as you wrote about, integrated on an Intel D845PEBT2, and I'm not sure I have it set for maximum performance in the real world. I've been recording on a stand alone disk recorder then editing in Sonar, but I'd like to be able to slave the 2 together and I think I might need to tweak it some more...

Also I would hazard a guess that the same factors would apply to SATA or SCSI add-in PCI controllers, not just integrated ones - I run SCSI for Gigasampler so I might be getting a double whammy

losguy, I don't know if this is of any interest to you, being that the thread is months old now, but I was corectly informed about the Matrox G series defaulting to low PCI latency settings - outputs A and B are defaulting to 64 on my 550. I think I'll leave that alone for now. My SATA and SCSI controllers are at 32 (side not - I don't have any uesr-definable SCSI options in the driver other than the usual Wiindows offerings. My 2 deltas are also at 32., as well as my add-in NIC, Now since it is a server adapter, which aupports teaming, I'm thinking that is probably the best setting. I am surprised to find, however, that every other device in the system is set to ZERO - including the IDE controller! I am considering raising the level of the Delta's priority just a bit, but it kinda looks like I got lucky and ended up with a well balanced system after all

comments welcomed...

Hey I was just looking at the Recover Memory option - seems to put Mem Turbo to shame! I should mention that I'm looking at this in 98SE right now - I use W2K for DAW work, but I decided against putting PS on that until I had a chance to see what i was about first. It looks very good! Again, thanks for a really well written post. This one is going into hard copy....

Thanks for the kind words and sentiments, Vic. That would be like writing an article. Hey... that's an idea! (Too late to copyright the material, though... it's Cakewalk's property now!). Actually, the real "meat" is all on the first page.

it's your intellectual property !!!.....if your employed by them it would be regarded as "work for hire"

personally i think you should send it to SOS a.s.a.p.

mb

Thanks. Seek time has everything to do with the transient behavior of the drive, i.e. how long it takes to find the sector/cluster that you asked it to find. It could make a difference with lots of tracks fragmented all over the drive, and I suppose that it could cause glitches, though I'd expect it to more likely cause stutters and dropouts. Remember, too, that I had glitches even with two tracks, and with a screaming RAID 0 system that barely even felt that it was being accessed at all.

ORIGINAL: losguy

Actually, I'm an "Unofficial Spokesperson" for Cakewalk. Oh, BTW, did you know that SONAR tastes great!?
;-)

even so it can be VERY full-filling! (and it's open all night, at least at my house)